Bad Influence
by AuroraLamia
Summary: When you can’t run, you crawl and when you can’t even do that, you get someone to carry you, Someone comes looking for Faith, a person out of the past that needs to be carried just a little bit longer, only to bring forth new unexpected danger
1. Chapter One: Being Carried

Bad influence

Chapter One: Being Carried

Summary: Someone from the past of Faith comes back with news less then pleasant in certain points. Buffy finds herself finding out more then she knew about her sister slayer and the new slayer(etts) find that no matter how good you are, old friends of the Slayers always get the best rooms. Even if they were evil before "they got a soul".

~*~

senior

"Admit it B, I whooped your ass."

"Hey, I'm sick, I think I get an excuse for being beaten." Faith laughed loudly at Buffy as they walked into the kitchen. Of course it wasn't the _only_ kitchen in the Slayer house (Castle, whatever you want to call it) being as large as it was, picking up new slayers. Or slayeretts as Xander called them, saying that they need to be able to fight off an apocalypse (or two) with a few years of experience. Wouldn't hurt if they had a near death experience to toughen them up either.

"You call a cold-" Faith began before she stopped as she saw a young girl, no older then sixteen standing in the kitchen, her eyes directed to Buffy.

"Umm… Buffy, Willow said to tell you there's someone in the boundaries." Said one of the new (about a month in the castle) slayeretts. She was twisting her strawberry blonde hair around her finger nervously as she continued with what Willow had told her. "She's seems to be a low level threat, but she's carrying something and its cloaked with something magical, we don't know what it is."

"I'll check her out." Buffy said, all humour from the conversation with Faith before, lost. As she entered the foyer she pulled a sword out of what was an umbrella but now held axes and swords in case of emergencies. "Barbara, get the arches into position, if she attacks me, shoot." Barbara nodded and ran up a spiral staircase to get to the top floor to tell the slayeretts up there to obtain positions.

Buffy saw her in the distance of two hundred metres or so forward. 'How had she got so close without us detecting her?' Buffy wondered as she swung the sword in her hand to get a better grip before she walked to the woman. From what she could as she walked was that the woman was cradling something her arms, with one hand over it as if it were a weapon she needed to pull out at any moment.

Buffy couldn't see the girl's face, because of the hood that hid it in the shadows, but she knew from how the woman was walking that she wasn't hurt, at least not fatally. It was a stupid thing for the woman- if she wanted to attack- to keep her eyes on the weapon and not on what was ahead of her. Buffy could easily kill her if she found her a threat, and the arches could easily shoot from where they were.

Something wasn't right.

Buffy was only fifty paces away and the woman still hadn't looked up. So she spoke, "Excuse me?" The woman quickly faced her as if she hadn't even notices someone was there, and maybe she hadn't. Buffy still wondered what was in her arms and why it was cloaked with magic so strong that even Willow couldn't break through it… easily.

"Who…who are you?" The woman hadn't come for her; either that or she was playing dumb and stupid.

"I'm Buffy Summers." If she wanted to strike, now was her moment, but instead she relaxed from her tense stance. She smiled softly and murmured a pray to her goddess. Before she met eye contact with Buffy. Buffy could see that she had green eyes that held pain and torment, there was also a fading bruising around her neck that looked like something or some_one_ had strangled her.

"Is she here?" She paused before realising that Buffy probably had no idea who she was talking about, "Faith?" Buffy stopped, if she was a demon how to kill her, why was she asking for Faith? In her most humble opinion, more demons tried to kill _her_ then Faith. Maybe the tides had turned or maybe the girl was trying to get her trust.

"Why-" but before the blonde slayer could even finish her question a cry came out, a _baby's_ cry.

"Shh… come on sweetie, I know you're hungry." Her voice cracked as she said this, and Buffy could see that the girl herself- who was about her own age maybe a few years younger- was pale and quite gaunt. Her slayer senses weren't tingling, in fact, all her morals pointed to at least allowing this girl descent food, water, a bath and a sleep. She could even hear her mother's voice telling her that's she'll make some warm cocoa.

"Why do you want to talk to Faith?"

"I'll wait outside if you don't believe that I'm trustworthy, just-just tell her Aurora is here, she'll know who I am… I hope she will, I hope I'm not that easy to forget." Buffy could see she was trying not to break down in front of her.

"Faith?"

"What's up B? Was the woman evil?" Faith asked grinning, until the next words that poured out of Buffy's mouth made her stop laughing.

"You tell me." Faith frowned and her eyes narrowed just soft enough to tell Buffy that she was confused at the statement, "I-I don't think she is, she's in the foyer, she asked for you." Curiosity bet over slayer instincts to shout about irresponsibility in letting a "could-be" demon/evil person…thingy in the house.

As she walked out of the kitchen into the foyer, the first thing she heard was a lullaby. A Lullaby she hadn't heard for a very, very long time. "Hush, now, my little one.

Please don't you cry, lay your head down on my shoulder and sigh. Sun's gone away, and Mama will pray. Silence will keep all while you sleep."

"Aurora?" She asked softly, she already knew the answer though; she would recognize that voice anywhere. Aurora gasped and turned around swiftly and then faith saw it, the mark on her neck, the one that were like purple handprints. Then she saw the baby.

Aurora, still holding her child, cast an arm around Faith's neck, brought herself closer to Faith. Faith could feel her trembling and she knew that Aurora was crying. Faith was never one much for comforting, she had no idea _what_ to do in a situation, but when the baby started to cry and Aurora was crying, she knew she had to do _something_.

"Hey, come on, we'll go to my room and you can talk to me." Through the sniffles of Aurora as she rocked her baby, the dark slayer could tell that she also was hungry, As a result of this, she brought Aurora and the baby into the kitchen and grabbed some chips, bread, milk, water, basically anything she could carry before she went to her room, which was on the third floor, between the second which was filled will long-term slayeretts (those who had been training and past certain levels of experience for about a year) and the third, short-term. The ones that were between the two levels were on the higher floor. But the long term (and scoobies) each had a time shift in which they were to patrol the boundaries to make sure there was _nothing_ out of the ordinary even with Willow's magic.

"So you got knocked up, forced into marriage, beat, cheated on and basically had a shit life?"

"Then he joined the cult, the demon cult, at first I thought it was- well- the sort of play-around ones, you know dungeons and dragons, then one day I left him with her, my baby, and- and I forgot to get the shopping list, so I came back and he had a knife over her. I screamed and he said he needed her blood, that he- we would have everything and we could have another child then.

"I fought him with everything I had, every ounce of strength, and… and when he was knocked out I grabbed her and went to a family friend, she was in a strong covern, so powerful, they gave me the blanket because they said he might try looking for her over me so I needed to hide and- and I've been running, looking for you. I went to Sunnydale and it was just a hole and I was so scared, so-" Her voice broke off and she was crying again.

Faith's frown had deepened, but she held Aurora in a hug, as she sobbed into her shoulder. She didn't know any comfort words like Aurora always had, almost always had. Then she remembered something, something Aurora once said to her.

"When you can't run, you crawl, and when you can't do that-"

"You get someone to carry you." Aurora finished for her with a bittersweet smile, "I know I've asked you to carry me before, and I know that I owe you so much, but…" She didn't know what to say, she was so lost and so alone in the world that she had lost herself in misery.

"Don't worry, I'll carry you, but you better make me some of those cookies, I've been craving them for a long time." She joked, and it got out a smile from Aurora, a small smile, but a smile that held no bitterness, just memories.

"Hey, who's the new girl?" Dawn asked while Buffy was using a punching bag, her expression softened when she saw her younger sibling who was- at this moment- not looking as young as she remembered her looking. 'You take your eyes off your kid sister for five minutes and she looks like she's twenty-five' Buffy thought with a smile.

"Did they spread like wildfire that quickly?"

"Buff, they started spreading as soon as Willow sent Annie up to tell you someone entered the boundaries." Buffy laughed, yeah, girls gossiped, and since they were slayers, they gossiped even more. "So, who _is_ she?"

"An old friend of Faith's." Dawn's eye's lit up quite suddenly in excitement of new gossip to tell the girls.

"And the cloak?"

"Look, how about we let her settle in, and then she can tell you, _if_ she wants to tell you." Buffy said with a piercing glare meaning 'don't push her, she's been through enough'. Dawn rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, cocked one hip to the side and pouted. Before she muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "yes _mum_." Buffy watched carefully as Dawn exited the room before Xander entered.

"I heard something about a new girl, slayer?"

"Not that I know of, I think she's just a friend of Faith's who's been through something big." Buffy shook her head and relaxed her muscles before she walked towards Xander who locked the door behind him, knowing that this was 'big scoobie talk moment'. "She'd been strangled, and she had a baby." Xander muttered a few curse words; "I don't know if it's anything supernatural and I'm not a hundred percent sure she knows about the entire 'magical' world like we do." Buffy sighed and blew at a stray wisp of hair out of her eyes.

"Well what can we do?" It was a rhetorical question, and he was right. What could they do? Nothing except make the best of it and hope that the world won't end tomorrow, or that she's really a clone… or a robot.

"I just… she was ­_strangled_, those bruises… and she had a baby…" Buffy looked up at Xander. "She looked so helpless Xander, light she had been kicked so many times she had almost given up hope that it would stop."

"We can help her, you know that, and Faith is who she was after, though I don't know why her and not you."

"Because she wanted to talk to someone she knew, who she saw as family, if you were in trouble and Faith had been a slayer before me, who would you run to?"

"You but I don't see-"

"Because you trust me, you know that I would help you." Xander went silent as he looked at Buffy. "I'm going to check on her, make sure she's alright, find her a place to sleep, and see if there's anything else I can do."

"I don't mean to sound rude Buffy, but why would you offer all that to her?"

"When Faith saw her, she- she looked like how I would if I saw mum, disbelief but hope. I think they were as close as sisters, and then the thing with Faith's slayer happened and she was scared-"

"That still doesn't tell me why you're being so ultra nice, I have nothing against it but it seems a little out of character…"

"She looked like how I felt when I dug out of the grave, scared, lost and alone, not really sure what was going on around my surroundings." Xander went quiet and for a second he remembered how she looked when they found her, as if she didn't know any of them, as if she wasn't quite sure where she was, who she was. He understood, and he took Buffy's word for it that she was safe.

Xander watched as she left the training room, Dawn had been at the door trying to listen, but he doubted she caught much of what they said, let alone something interesting. Especially by the way that she seemed surprised when the door opened. He had help re-build the castle, along with Willow's magic and a few [magical] construction workers. He knew how thick the castles walls and the doors were. Even slayer or vampire hearing wouldn't be able to hear properly from the next room over.

Buffy knocked lightly on Faith's door, just enough that if they weren't _too_ busy they would hear. Besides she really didn't want to disturb the baby. When she heard Faith's voce say "Come in." She opened the door to see that Aurora was holding the baby as she slept.

"Don't worry B. The babe's a heavy sleeper." The three of them laughed softly as Buffy closed the door behind her and sat on the end of the bed.

"What's her name?"

"Hope." Faith looked shocked and then a small smile crossed her face, as she looked at Aurora who was humming the lullaby softly under her breath. She had such a gentle voice that seemed to carry her nature, Buffy couldn't understand what would hurt her like that, it _had_ to be human, a vampire would have just snapped her neck.

"Why would you name her a name like that?" Faith asked, only to have a smile from Aurora as a reply, "Come on, that's not fair."

"You did it to me all the time when we were young, and I named her Hope because when I found out I was pregnant, I had hope, that and because I know you would kill me if I named her Faith."

"Damn right, no kid deserves all the 'You gotta have Faith' puns people keep cracking." With that comment, Faith cut a look at Buffy in a mock-glare. Yeah, the entire scoobies liked to crack 'Faith' jokes when she was around, and Buffy would stake her life that guys had used pick up lines with 'Faith' in it when they knew her name.

"She'll get all the Hope puns, but she's my Hope, Hope that the world _will _get better." Faith breathed out a sigh; she was still at a loss to do. Maybe B had an idea, she looked at B, who was to busy watching the baby to catch her eye contact. 'Damn' Faith thought, 'what the hell am I supposed to do? Do I talk to her? Does she even WANT to talk to me?' It was moments like this where she wished there was a battle she needed to get to.


	2. Chapter Two: Proving Worth

Bad influence

Chapter Two: Proving Worth

Summary: Aurora talks about Faith in the past to Buffy. Hope goes missing only to be found in the arms of someone less then motherly like. And the Slayer(etts) learn that no matter what, gossip is only good when they can _actually_ hear it.

~*~

It was late at night and Faith was asleep. Regardless of how tired she was Aurora could not sleep because of the throbbing in her neck. After making sure Hope was not disturbed, she quietly exited Faith's room and headed for the kitchen. She knew it was on the first floor and it was the room next to the foyer so she didn't have much trouble trying to find it.

When she entered though, she saw Buffy who was talking to Willow. "Hello." Willow said and pulled out a chair for her to sit in, "We were just talking about Faith." Aurora looked curiously at Willow, the way she said 'Faith' sounded as if there were some bitter feelings around the dark slayer.

"Faith was my only friend when I was growing up, you probably know a bit of her family." They nodded, the two knew her dad walked out on her and her mother was an alcoholic but that's where it stopped about what they knew of her family, "Well, I had the perfect family until they were brutally murdered in a shooting that they had walked into, no one knew my family very well since we'd only recently moved to Boston, so no one knew I even existed."

"You moved onto the streets."

"I was fourteen, and it was three a.m. when I realised they weren't coming home, I stayed in the house until electricity, water and heating got cut off. That was two months after they were killed. That was when I moved onto the streets." Aurora stopped there, her memory wasn't very clear when it got to this part, "I wouldn't have lasted a day if she hadn't founded me- trying to start a fire in an abandoned house- at first I thought she was like me, but then she told me about her parents and I let her stay with me, well more like I begged her to." She laughed and with a smile she waited to think of where to continue. But at the same time she lost herself in memory.

"So she stayed with you?"

"No, she came back though, after school she brought food and blankets. I think that's when she was called- because she did these _incredible_ things. She looked after me, then one day she came to me, her bags were packed and she asked me to come to Sunnydale with her, she was scared about something. We fought and then she… left." The way Aurora said left made Willow wonder if something had happened between the fight and Faith leaving.

"Just left, like that?" Buffy asked surprised, she expected Faith would have brought her kicking and screaming.

"No, things were said, between her and myself, things I have wanted to take back for a long time, I got married eight months after I met him, and a few years later after all the abuse I carried a child, and he was kind to me, he settled down, and then… then I left."

"Why?" Willow asked before she saw that Aurora was crying silently, "I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything… I-I'll just go quiet now…"

"You tell us if and when you're ready ok?" Buffy asked, although curiosity was killing her too. The girl had been strangled and every now and again it seemed as if she had bruised a few ribs to by the way she walked and winced at certain movements. It was moments like those she was glad she healed fast.

"I-I'm just going to go to bed now." Aurora said standing up; she began to walk out the kitchen, before she stopped and turned her head around slightly, "Thank you for listening to my sob story." She said over her shoulder before she continued her walk to her room, _Faith's_ room. But when she entered the room and went to check on Hope, she found her missing.

She gasped and wondered if the baby had escaped the little sheet and pillow bed she made, turning around she saw Faith was gone to. Had something happened? Had a demon found them? She was about to rush out to find them when the door opened to Faith holding the baby.

"Sorry, she woke me up, and you were gone so I took 'er for a walk… wasn't sure what to do 's all." Aurora placed a hand over her heart to calm it down; she let out a sigh of relief, smirking Faith said, "Didn't think you would get in a panic."

"Thanks Faith, scare me half to death the first night I'm here."

"Hey get used to it, tomorrow all the slayeretts will be running 'round drivin' you mad." Faith said with a laugh as she handed Hope over to her mother. She grinned as Aurora rocked the baby to a gentle sleep before placing her back in the pillow- and sheets- crib.

"You know, we could get you a room if you wanted it-"

"Not tonight, please, I just… unless you want to be alone?" Faith frowned, after breaking up with Wood, she'd be alone, and she liked to have her bed's only warmth herself. But she could see how broken Aurora was, could see that sonovabitch had treated her without mercy. Just for tonight, she decided, just so she knew that there was someone else there for her.

-

"A baby, in a house of slayers, isn't that a bit dangerous?" Willow asked as she finished off her hot cocoa. Aurora had left half an hour ago, and the conversation had yet to fully drive off of her or her baby.

"I don't know, I think she's pretty over protective of her baby, just like mum was with me and I turned out fine." Willow gave her a look, "Well I only died twice, but hey I'm a slayer what do you expect?"

"So you're saying the baby is going to turn into a slayer?"

"What! No… I'm just saying that here, at least she's protected, the both of them." Buffy sighed, "Do you think she'll stay, or she'll leave when the coast is clear?" Willow raised an eyebrow at her, "Yeah, I guess she did only arrive today, but I'm just saying."

"Buffy, calm down, wait a few days before you ask her, let her settle down first you _know_ how hard it is to be in a place like this, it's quite overwhelming and she hasn't even spoken to the mini-slayers yet."

"Slayeretts." Buffy corrected only to receive Willow's eye roll and a low murmur of, 'whatever'. Inhaling sharply she looked up, "We should go to bed before someone walks into this conversation who shouldn't." Willow nodded as she picked up Buffy's empty cup of cocoa and rinsed it out.

"Just be yourself around her, if she doesn't like you, then that's her problem." Willow said as she read through Buffy's slight nervousness, before the slayer could ask how she knew the with answered, "I know you Buffy, you want people to like you, just relax."

"How's Kennedy?" Buffy asked, finally deciding that a change of topic was- quite indeed- in order. Because knowing Dawn she was probably lurking around a corner trying to find something interesting. Because after all, she was a teenager and Buffy had been there, done that, had the t-shirt and burned it.

"I don't know, I think she's still angry at me." Well, Buffy had to admit; she would have been to, the poor girl almost _died_. But being a good friend she didn't say anything like that, instead she just said, "She'll get over it soon enough and the two of you will be snuggling in the dark corners of this castle." Willow laughed.

"I hope so, I really miss her."

"And she probably misses you, give her a bit more space, it'll work out all fine soon, I promise you." The redheaded witch grinned hopefully. It had only been a month, and almost dying because your girlfriend drained your energy takes a lot of time to calm down and get over. "Hey, did you talk to Xander today?"

"About what?" Willow asked as she leaned against the sink, her brown eyes twinkling in the dull light that shone from the windows as one of the defence system whizzed around the house in it's perfect circle.

"Groceries, one of the girls thought that we could garden to at least cut down, they could take shifts looking after the garden- some of the girls feel at home when they work in gardens you know?"

"Oh, so what did you want me to talk about him for again?" Willow said, the memory of having that conversation completely blank in her mind. It must have been sometime when she was still wallowing over Kennedy massively, which included bipolar moments and fits of unexpected rage or breakdowns.

"Well, Xander could built a fence, but maybe you could do some little magic to keep the bad pests from eating it before we do?" Willow laughed, now she remembered the conversation.

"I'll get round to it next time I see him." Buffy smiled. "Well, I'm pooped, I'm off to bed." Buffy laughed, same Willow as always. "See you in the morning."

"Ok, see you tomorrow." She said giving a short, small wave before she grabbed a cookie out of the cookie jar. She was going to check on all the girls, but she knew they would be safe and if anything, she really needed sleep- tomorrow was training day and she was in charge with Faith, they were teaching the new recruits and it was something that needed a lot of patience and when Buffy is grumpy and tired, she wasn't patient. She only had the girl's best interest in mind after all.

-

Xander was making rounds around the new slayers, making sure they were all sleep. It was his shift after all. He knew that some of them heard a creak of a floorboard and immediately went quiet, knowing he was making rounds. But every now and again he caught a room. He knocked on the door just so he didn't walk into anything (Xander had been through that situation enough times to know to knock-before-entrance was a VERY important rule of the house), open the door and tell them all to go to sleep otherwise there T.V. time would be cut.

He never did cut their T.V. time of course, but with the new slayer, nine out of ten times it worked and they all went to sleep. Some of the girls were so scared that they couldn't sleep, and when they told him this, he would come into the room, telling them a story of something quite heroic Buffy did on saving the world from (yet another) apocalypse.

Their major favourites were the one where she died, then came back to life, especially the Glory one.

Some of them asked how he got his eye patch, or the story of Anya. Man, he still hurt at the thought of Anya, what a terrible man he had been and what he would do to go back, to save her, to marry her, to declare his ultimate love for her. Something, anything. He'd hurt her, but not nearly as much as he'd hurt him self from hurting her.

It was like that for Buffy Buffy's previous relationships. She had yet to face Spike, Angel or even (though he's now married) Riley again. She just couldn't. She sent someone else to do it and that was that. But Xander knew that one of these days one (or maybe all) of them were going to rack up to her door and demand that she talked to them.

If only Anya could come out from where ever she was (and by the Gods [or God he wasn't fussy] all might he hoped it was heaven or somewhere equally nice) that she might return to just even push him around, to tell him what a jerk he was. Something like that may settle the huge grief and angst he felt every time he thought of her or her blunt humour.

"Xander? We're scared." One of the girls asked, she was only fourteen. FOURTEEN, even Buffy wasn't that young. Xander smiled at the girl who had poked her head out, she sure didn't look it with her tiny figure and doll like features, but she was a slayer.

"How about I tell you a story." Her friend popped her head out next and grinned, nodding fast and eagerly. Laughing he entered the room. It was like all the other Slayerett's rooms. It had three bunk beds, two on the sides, one in the middle, a single toilet and sink connected to it, a wardrobe for their basic clothes (i.e. their clubbing clothes when Faith took them when they were old enough [sixteen] their pyjamas, their "day" clothes [cleaning, lazy, loose stuff], their training clothes, and sometimes a bit of evening wear).

"Well what story do you want to hear?"

"Anything, tell us something about that woman you always speak of." Xander smiled, his Anya, still his, always his, only his.

"There was once a beautiful woman, who looked like an angel but spoke things that would make a sailor blush." The girls giggled, knowing exactly what he meant, "She was- of course- an ex-demon who had fallen for the lone soldier, someone who was to say a peasant to a god." He always made himself sound little, because he knew that was the truth. Anya could have had anyone and she chose him. Sometimes he wondered ifif things had been different, just a tiny bit more so, would she be alive. If he hadn't left her at the alter, more people might be dead- but would it really matter? She'd be alive and that would have made a world of a difference, it would have made his world complete now. "A demon who had sworn vengeance against the broken hearted, only to fall in love once more and have hers broken."

"Why?"

"Because the man was foolish, and when he realised he loved her, it was too late."

-

Dawn couldn't sleep, although she shared a room with only two other girls (because they were some of the few that survived the Sunnydale fight) she felt like she was completely surrounded, like the room was crowded, but maybe that was just her thoughts getting to her.

She had heard Buffy mention a baby. Was she pregnant? Was one of the other girls? Was Faith? Or was the new girl? Or maybe someone HAD a baby?

She had heard different things, and she had heard the Kennedy might come back from Singapore soon. She hoped that she didn't have to share a room with her if she still was angry at Willow, because Kennedy could just get over herself it was obvious Willow loved her. Though maybe Kennedy had met someone else and that's why she still wasn't returning the calls, or mail or anything.

Giles said that she was still alive; she just had been caught up in slayer stuff. With a sigh Dawn rolled over. Slayer stuff, she was barely involved in it as it was and she had been in it longer then most people in the house. Her sister WAS The Slayer after all, although Faith seemed to be trying to claim the capital 'T' these days. Dawn guessed Buffy was distracted, because no way was a cold keeping her from kicking someone's ass, she had lost to Violet the other day. Violet! She had been a slayerett barely over eight months. But maybe Buffy had just LET her win. That one was the most likely, because Dawn had only entered at the end of the fight hoping to learn something before Buffy kicked her out.

Which SUCKED! She was so totally old enough to learn to fight, because she HAS to know how to train herself because if she were to fight a demon (even though Buffy won't let her out on ANY hunts) she would most likely die.

One of these days she was going to prove that she was SO much better then Buffy at something. She was the KEY, hey; maybe she could do witch-y stuff. Well, Willow won't let her because Buffy refuses to let her near Willow long enough to ASK. Ugh, sisters. Can't live with them… well that about sums up her feelings at the moment. Because there was no way that she could remain living here… forever.

In fact, she would rather it if she could get married, but first she needs to meet a guy who isn't evil and will completely except her and her (huge) crazy family. Ok, this would be difficult, because she needed to MEET a guy first. And even then she had to BEG to the Higher Power that her sister doesn't need to kill him in any way possible like she did to two of her boyfriends. Poor Spike and Angel- even though they're not dead anymore- well they are but… whatever.


	3. Chapter Three: Over Shoulder

Bad influence

Chapter Three: Over Shoulder

Summary: Aurora remembers the past. Andrew lets loose of hell and Buffy can't deal with the girls 'who are dying for hot water'.

~*~

"Good morning sunshine."

"Oh god, don't start that again." Faith murmured hiding under her pillow to get away from a baby and her mother who seemed to want to just attack her with their gleeful smiles and fits of laughter. "Go away," she murmured as they poked her in the sides to get her up, "or I'll start shooting."

"Shooting what?" Aurora asked confused, she was sure there wasn't a gun under her pillow- she was pretty sure of that; she had basically hogged the bed with Hope sleeping between her and Faith. She grinned briefly at the memory of waking up to see Hope snuggled very deeply in the crook of Faith's neck.

"Daggers from my eyes."

"But you LOVE us… don't you." She began to pout and when Faith peeked out from under the pillow she rolled her eyes and murmured a pray to the Powers That Be that they would just shoot her with a mysterious bolt of lightning right now. Hope looked confused at her mother but she began to bang her tiny fists against Faith's stomach as if it was all a game on the xylophone.

Faith grabbed Hope and began to tickle her to death before she placed her down and jumped Aurora out of surprise. Pinning her down, she sat up straddling her and with a grin began to tickle the girl until she was begging for mercy.

"Please… stop… I'll… anything." She said in gasp of breaths as she laughed loudly. Loud enough that Hope was laughing too, and wondering why her mother was squirming so much, forgetting about her own tickle fit.

"Oh no, you see I owe you a few years of this, and you own me cookies."

"Cook...ies?"

"Yes, as in those delicious ones you once made at my house when my mother was at the pub and I dragged you over kicking and screaming." She remembered, she remembered also how Faith snuck her out when her mum came home, hiding her in a tree and waiting until her mother passed out before Faith stole…

Faith stopped tickling her, and smiled down at her. No. It wasn't a smile, Aurora realised, it was a smirk, something that she used in the midst of seduction, something she had never forgotten not after those years where Faith dragged her into a club and they just let loose.

"Do you really remember that day I dragged you to my house?" She asked as she leaned her body in close enough that her breasts grazed across her own, even though they both were clothed Aurora had to bite her tongue from letting out anything other then a full sentence that made her sound… different to how Faith probably remembered her.

"I… do." Inwardly she cringed, she couldn't form a full sentence as Faith nipped at her neck.

"Do you remember what I stole from you?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember how I promised I would steal more one day."

"Yes."

"Do you remember how I did?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember how you stole one thing from me?"

"No." She hadn't stolen anything from Faith, not that she knew of, and when Faith laughed she blushed, maybe that's what the dark slayer was pointing out- how she hadn't even stolen a kiss.

"I stole a kiss when you made me cookies, now I'm stealing something in return for you stealing-" She stopped and paused for a second, just hovering over before she climbed off and opened the door in nothing but her t-shirt and underwear. "What can I do for ya Dawnie?"

"Ah…" Dawn was surprised that Faith had heard her, she had been so careful to not step on any of the creaking floorboards, but as soon as she knelt down to see through the keyhole the door had opened.

"Let me guess, you want to see my lit'le friend and something else?"

"Er…" Well yeah, that's exactly what she wanted, but if she said that she might lose respect from Faith, and Dawn (like many other of the Slayeretts) longed for her respect. She was the Ultra Cool Slayer, Buffy had fought, but Faith had _lived_.

"Dawnie, spit it out."

"I was just passing by…" She said meekly before scuttling away. Closing the door, Faith turned around to see Aurora playing with Hope. She jumped down on the (bouncy) bed and grabbed Hope. Hope confused at how she had suddenly been on the bed to in the lap of the Dark slayer looked up and gurgled a laugh.

"Kiss!" She squealed in delight at the word, finding it absolutely hilarious. Aurora was shocked, her baby girl had just said her first word and it wasn't mum like she had first thought it would be. Strangely though, her thoughts never crossed past how amazed she was that her little girl was finally beginning to speak, soon enough she'll be saying whole sentences.

-

Buffy paced around her room before glancing at the clock. She had about five minutes before a flood of girls would be banging on her door demanding that they could borrow her bathroom. It happened every morning because at least five girls had to share a bathroom between them, sometimes more. And as they say, the early bird gets the worm, or in this case, the hot water.

Even though she had already showered, Buffy walked into her bathroom and looked into the mirror, her eyes sunk gaunt in her face, but it was ok a bit of make-up and voila perfection. They were only gaunt because she woke up at four with a question raging through her head, but she would deal with that later, it wasn't a big issue now.

What was a big issue was Aurora and her baby, or better yet, Aurora and Hope being there while they were training. She didn't want to traumatize the poor kid (meaning the baby) but she didn't want to offend Hope at the same time about her mothering skills.

Buffy was obsessing so much she didn't even hear the squeal of girls run through her door, pushing and shoving each other before entering the bathroom. Once there in the en-suite Buffy screamed for quiet and told them all to line up outside her room. Letting them all, one by one, go to the bathroom. Xander promised to build more, but until then, they lived with what they had.

It was a lot better then what they had started off with. That is to say, the castle was huge, no doubt about that, but with new slayeretts being awakened each dawn caused for more rooms. After a long time of training, Giles took them on a few missions and when deemed capable enough they got a choice of lesser Hell Mouths to help deal with. Those that died, because of accidents or a misjudgement or something equally as sad, were taken to their parents or legal guardians they originally had, and were placed in burial there. Those that hadn't had legal guardians, or parents, who may have been taken off the streets, or disowned, were buried in the large area that is the unofficial slayer burial grounds.

There are some deaths, but not many, everyone is careful and in the incidents of death, shakes the girls up and makes them become more careful.

Some slayeretts don't become actual slayers, but more like guardians. Some of them even learn to become witches, or healers or even researches. The strength and agility just adds to their jobs. Of course training is still mandatory, you have to keep them bodies in shape in case of an attack.

"Buffy, Elaine is taking for_ever_ in the showers." Buffy rubbed her forehead in frustration. Without even a glare she knocked on the door and told Elaine to hurry up or there will be chores added to her list. Glancing at her watch, she realised that the girls were behind schedule.

"Alright kids, if you don't all finish in the next hour you'll miss training, research, medical lessons, witchcraft or chores, and those that do miss any of those will not be going clubbing with Faith on Friday but instead cleaning the basements and bathrooms." She sighed as she walked away to the training room.

_That should keep them in gear for at least another hour_, she thought with mild humour, _if you can't bribe, threats always work._ And it was a fact from the Summers' residents that had always worked, and when in doubt, punish. How many times had Joy, her own mother, used those three techniques? First bribe, second threat, third punish. Though normally by the bribe herself and Dawn had already done what she wished.

As Buffy got to the stares, a new cheerful smile on her face, she wondered if sliding down the banister would be fun. Sure a few girls had twisted their ankles doing it, but hey, you gotta live a little. _Hmm… that sounds a lot like Faith…_ her thoughts said, interrupting her original trail of thought. _Should I listen to them?_ She decided against it. Maybe when there wasn't going to be a fight that could damage some of her pride and dignity if she lost again.

-

"You're going to fight Buffy this morning?" Aurora asked, just checking she _had_ heard correctly, because as ridiculous as it sounded, it most likely was true. Hadn't being here for a night proven that things here, in the Slayer Castle, or what ever it was really named, were nothing like what she was used to.

"Yep, me and B, one on one, fighting in front of a class filled with girls." Aurora stopped walking, blinked and cleaned out her ears. When Faith realised she wasn't next to her, she turned around and raised a single eyebrow. "Sup?" She asked as if she hadn't realised that something was amiss with Aurora's expression.

"I'm sorry, I thought I just heard the summary of a lesbian erotic film, what was that?" Faith laughed, and Aurora grimaced as she moved little Hope on her waist, she had heard correctly. Shaking her head, she continued to follow. "There is no camera in this right?" She asked meekly, only to hear another laugh from Faith. Well the good news at least it wasn't _her_ laughing.

"Why do you want a copy?" She asked suggestively and Aurora realised her mistake in the originally completely innocent question. What Aurora had meant with the question was, 'if you're taping it, is there any chance someone could get their hands on it?' not 'this sounds hot, I want to see it'. It was so not her style.

Blushing, and stammering as she tried to correct the statement in what she meant, Aurora was so fixated on correcting herself, she didn't see the group of girls until she almost slammed into one. "Aww, what a cute baby." A girl cried out and suddenly she was in the centre of them with almost all of them cooing the baby.

"What's her name?"

"Is she your sister?"

"No she must be her daughter!"

"Oh, look she giggling."

"I think she crying…"

"No, I know baby's she just sleepy."

They were all arguing over the top, and Hope loved the attention. Against what they had said, Hope was just screaming with joy that people were looking at her. Her bright eyes giggled loudly and her hair fell into her eyes as she bounced up and down on her mother's hip.0

Standing frozen in place, shocked with how she got in the middle of where she was, Aurora didn't even feel it when Faith grabbed her waist and pulled her away from the girls. "Be lucky it wasn't a puppy." She mumbled as she continued walking to the main kitchen.

"Ah, there's the convict!" A male voice called as he flipped a pancake over.

He was about to ask Faith a question before he paused and realised there were two more people in the room, well one was a baby but same difference right? "And this must be the Main Gossip Girl." He said before he smiled brightly, "I'm Andrew, I cook and I'm also an evil villain." He laughed a horribly, cliché, cartoon evil laugh before going back to pancakes, "Would you like waffles or pancakes?"

"Ah… pancakes?" Aurora said before she blinked and turned to Faith, "Is he…?"

"No, just a geek." She said as a plate of three pancakes was passed to her with maple syrup. She was already stuffing her mouth when another set of words exited Aurora's mouth that caused Faith to swallow and almost choke on her food.

"What did he mean by convict?" Suddenly Hope burst into tears.

-

Willow had been calmly walking by, a spring in her step; she had received notice from Kennedy saying that she would talk when they got back. Although that was a few months away, at least they would be talking. Yayness. But the sounds of shouting, a crash of metal falling to the ground and a baby's cry interrupted her thoughts.

Thinking of a possibly demon attack she ran to the centre of the noise only to see Andrew hiding under the kitchen table with Aurora rocking her baby screaming at Faith who was trying to say something.

"You _lied_ to me, you _promised_!" The hysterical Aurora cried out, pointing an accusing finger at Faith. "You went to Jail, for WHAT!?" She asked, but the answer lay thick in the tension filled air.

"It was an accident al right? I didn' mean to kill him."

_Oh_, she thought, _Faith didn't tell her._ Willow knew she ahd to stop this fight before it got out of hand, but at the same time she knew they had to work it out between themselves. And it hadn't become physical _yet._ The metal that had crashed was a pot filled with water that Andrew had dropped to duck under the table. Muttering a quick spell, the water disappeared into the well in the back garden outside.

Willow walked around the two fighting girls and crouched down next to Andrew. "How'd it happen?" She asked softly, part of her worried that if she spoke to loud the girl's anger would be deflected onto her.

"It was my fault, I called her Faith a convict and it just got worse from there." Willow sighed. It wasn't Andrew's fault _really_ but part of her wanted to blame him, those feelings resorted back to Tara's death even though he had no involvement in that either. "I shouldn't have said anything."

When the cries of Hope got louder and Willow realised neither of them were paying attention to the neglected child she screamed for silence. An echo of gold exerted from her hands and everyone in the room became silent even though the mouths were still moving.

"You two." She said pointing at Faith and Aurora, "Shut up, you're causing a young child to cry, now when I un-magic you-" She couldn't think of the actual proper word at that moment, "- Aurora will speak first and Faith, you will not interrupt until I let you to and Andrew, just shut up." With a wave and a twist of her hand the gold diverted back where it first exited.

But as soon as that happened, it went to chaos as they both began screaming and shouting again and Andrew began muttering under his breath, plus Hope was still wailing at the top of her god forsaken lungs. Willow couldn't deal with it so she just left the kitchen, as she walked away she heard Aurora leave with the baby and Faith go to the training room.

_Buffy will be in a hell of a beating_, Willow said mournfully. She knew for a fact that when Faith was as angry as this, she didn't hold back with anything. She thanked the heavens that she had to work in the basement/dungeons today. Although the sound echoed in the castle, there would be nothing worse then being to close to those two when they cross paths again later today.

_Maybe I should warm Xander before he gets in the middle of it._ She thought as she climbed down the stairs to the room where she was teaching a small group of girls Witchcraft. Lots of girls signed up for it, but as they realised the grizzly details and how hard it actually was and the fact that they still had to do training only it was cut down slightly, most of them dropped out.


	4. Chapter Four: Pure Frustrations

Bad influence

Chapter Four: Pure Frustrations

Summary: Aurora can't sleep, Faith is kicking some serious demon ass but not burning off the steam she needs to and Willow thinks there's something missing in the story Aurora tells of Faith's departure.

~*~

"Shh… come on sweetie, please don't cry." She said as she rocked Hope back and forth in her arms. She knew something about the vibrations when rocking soothed kids, but it wasn't working. She had talked and talked and rocked and jiggled and she was still crying. It wasn't her diaper, thank god, or that she was hungry, maybe she was just bored, Aurora had after all hidden her in the room once Buffy had found a spare room, small and old as it was, it was better then what she had been used to pre being here.

So she tickled and she blew raspberries and soon Hope fell asleep. Aurora breathed out a sigh of relief. At last, her fair child is asleep, now she could too. Only when she curled up to her baby girl, her eyes shut, she found herself more awake then before when she was desperate for sleep.

Inching off the single bed, she stood up and quietly tiptoed to the window. She looked up at the stars and smiled softly. The days she used to look up at them had been brilliant, fantastic even, but nothing compared to how they soothed her the nights that she just wanted to curl up and die. The nights that he had hurt her were still fresh in memory, she didn't want to still think about her husband, but at the same time it was a sort of necessity. She had to remember that if he ever came crawling back, he had hurt her, too many times she had blocked all those memories out and remembered the good ones. Not any more.

The castle was silent; she couldn't even hear a murmur of the girl's next door. They had fallen asleep some time during Hope's crying session. Aurora smiled, Hope was learning words, new ones everyday and a few teeth were coming through. She had been able to walk for quite some time though so that was nothing new. It was just a pity she had to leave all of Hope's stuff, aside from a few diapers that were re-washable, at home, even the Teddy that had meant so much to the both of them.

Aurora grimaced, She and Faith had fought earlier this morning, and she wasn't exactly proud of it. It was a stupid reason, something she had held onto since her childhood teen years. It wasn't the fact that Faith had broken her promise, because that happens; she understood that as least, it was the fact that she hadn't said anything. Faith hadn't sat down and told her, hadn't said anything, had kept a part of her past away from her.

_I guess really, I'm just angry at myself for fighting with her_, she thought, and she was. She didn't want to fight with Faith, but it felt right to express such emotion from the numbness she had felt in most moment of the day, give or take a few moments she was happy.

Although Aurora wasn't one to get violent, she did feel like breaking something, but when Hope cried out of loneliness, she forgot her anger and rushed to her baby girl. Picking her up she rocked her in comfort and took her to the window.

"See that star Hope, that one that sparkles differently from the rest, that's your star, it was the first star I saw when I was giving birth to you and it shone hope." She laughed a little and looked outside, the stars were beginning to fade, in a few hours it would be dawn, and she still couldn't rest. He still penetrated her thoughts. Maybe her husband will always be there, but one day he will only be a memory and not a nightmare. So she hoped.

"Momma." Hope whispered as she shut her eyes as Aurora rocked her softly. Aurora smiled and sung the lullaby she always sung, "Silence will keep all the while you sleep." She ended, still holding her child, afraid that he'll be hiding in the shadows for Hope's blood and if she turned away for another instant.

No. It was stupid; nothing would get in and kill her.

But she was afraid, so afraid that nightmares plunged and tainted her thoughts while she was wide awake, biting her lip hoping that she had found sanctuary.

-

As Buffy watched Aurora and her toddler walk into the kitchen, she realised that although Hope had slept well, Aurora hadn't slept even a minute. She could read the expression of lonely longing all over her face. She'd stake her life on the fact that Aurora had watched the sunrise while lost in her thoughts about the not so recent past on her husband.

_Poor thing_, she sympathized in thought, _what I'd do to see a small smile_. In a way, the blonde slayer knew that maybe Faith would be able to help her, but at the same time wondered if it was worth trying to fix something that may or may not be broken. A shared look with her follow redheaded witch told her there might be another way.

"Hey Aurora?" Her dull eyes looked up at her, as if surprised there were other people in the room. No doubt she may actually _be _surprised, lack of sleep can make it harder to notice thinks like people. "Are you any good with gardening?"

"Mmm… I miss the garden, I use to think faeries would come to me if I spent enough time in the garden." Buffy wasn't deaf, she heard the longing in her voice. But something told Buffy that the longing wasn't for the garden, but for her childish beliefs and thoughts, possibly the innocence she once held as well. Being in times like she was going for brought those on, Buffy knew that from experience.

"Well, Willow and Xander are setting up a garden for the girls and maybe you could…?"

"Oh I couldn't, it's your garden and Hope…" She trailed off, and closed her eyes. For a second Buffy wondered if she had offended her when she saw her tilt her head back and blink up at the lights. She knew that sign, there was something more bothering her and she was trying to hide it.

"We'll look after her, I've got a little sister and Willow's great with kids." She swallowed and then a small smile appeared, it looked to be only half real, more of a ghost of a smile then an actual one, but it was enough. Aurora nodded her head. "Great, Xander's working on the fence at the moment, if you want to see how it's going and maybe advise him…?" Buffy said smiling as Hope was handed to her.

As Buffy watched her leave she smiled, "She's going through a lot and finding out that Faith was wanted for double homicide probably just added onto her problems." Willow whispered, even though she knew Aurora couldn't hear her, she was use to whispering because of the slayer hearing skills.

"I think having Hope saved her more then anything." Buffy replied before shaking her head and looking at Hope. "Uh-oh." She whispered looking at the little girl whose eyes seem to be brimming with new tears.

"Shh, hey Hope do you want to see my collection of Teddies." Buffy paused and looked up at Willow, "I boxed them, I just couldn't stand actually getting rid of them." She admitted shamefully as Buffy laughed. The good news was at the word Teddies, Hope had stopped crying, the bad news, Buffy had a feeling she had just wet her diaper.

"Do you know how to change a diaper?" She asked and Willow frowned, "Damn, I think she's wearing the ones you pin and I don't want to hurt her you know?" Willow laughed and it was now Buffy's turn to frown. "Crap, _where_ are the diapers?" She didn't want to admit it aloud, but Buffy wasn't sure she could handle babysitting even though it wasn't exactly _baby_sitting, considering the fact that she was more of a toddler.

"Ah, the joy of seeing Buffy's first baby panic attack." Willow said laughing at the expression written all over Buffy's face.

"Hey, I'll use your sheets to clean her if your not careful." That wiped the laughter of her face.

"Ok, maybe I can use a bit of magic to magic up some baby essentials?" Willow asked, as she looked worriedly at the Hope whose face was now going bright red as if she was thinking of something very hard. Or doing a poop. "Ok, well that answers that."

-

Xander frowned at Aurora, it wasn't that she was helping him, that didn't bother him one bit, in fact he was confused as to what do to- Gardens weren't his specialty, especially greenhouses. No, what bothered him was the fact that she was tired and he could see why Buffy connected with her feelings so well, she looked like she had been taken from her serenity and didn't know how to get back. She had been through so much and deserved peace. But so did a lot of the girls in this house, so did he.

"So if you widen this area here, more sunlight will be able to reach there." She finished. And Xander blinked at her as if to say "what? Sorry I wan't listening, lost in my thoughts." Aurora gave a half smile and repeated her words as she pointed them out on the plans.

"This isn't going to be an easy build like I first thought." He muttered more to himself then to her, "But I've dealt with worse and the area there's pretty flat, maybe a few rocks to move but some of the girls can help." She smiled at him and he smiled back in return, she had a nice smile, one that looked like she went to church every Sunday, prayed to the Lord before going to sleep every night and said grace at every meal, she looked sweet and innocent, every where but her eyes.

"Are you like them?"

"Like who?" Xander asked confused and she blushed, realisng she hadn't been quite as clear as she thought. Standing up straighter against the wooden picnic table where the blueprint of the castle and where to put the greenhouse was, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"The girls, like Willow and Buffy and the others, magical I guess is what I mean." Every time she tried to meet contact with his eyes, she realise that he had lost one and a patch was covering it instead. _I'll ask Faith about it_. Then with sudden realisations he realised that maybe Faith still didn't want to talk to her, she had sent a full mouth of words in her direction and some of those would probably take a long time to take back.

"No, I'm just plain and simple human."

"Oh thank God I'm not the only one, I was starting to feel deficient." Xander laughed, understanding the feeling of being the weakest in a pack full of superwomen. Hell, it was really bad when the potentials were all in the house during the war, he felt he could do little to nothing, then the Caleb incident with his eye happened and he felt worse, but now he knows he is at least there for Willow and Buffy and they need him for support at the least.

"Try being the only male."

"What about Andrew?" He stared at her and she realised, in his books, Andrew wasn't male, probably didn't exist in his books. "Oh." She whispered softly and he laughed.

"I don't hate the guy… he just gets on my nerves." Yeah, she knew people like that, she understood. It was strange, but Aurora found herself finding Xander a man that she could become best friends with, maybe the world wasn't so bad, now that Hope was safe and Faith was here, even if they were fighting, now she had someone who was like her in a way, understood at least part of her problems and didn't ask her to talk about them, just moved on.

"So how did Andrew actually become part of the… umm… group?" She didn't know what it was, a school maybe? Or perhaps just a asylum for girls who don't belong, who were called and didn't know what to do? It didn't matter; all the same it was for slayers who needed to learn to save the world. Superwomen school it should be called.

"Well, its complicated, and a long story."

"I've got a lot of free time." She said smiling at him as he sat down on the bench. Xander returned the smile and Aurora saw a twinkle in his eye, maybe she wasn't the only one who needed basic normality.

"Well, I guess it really begins with him playing evil with two other dorks…" Xander began before he headed into the story. As he talked, Aurora listened. She was learning about Buffy's past and as she was, she realised that maybe Xander wasn't the only one who understood her, it seemed that everyone understood everyone else on a certain level with at least one thing.

It was a nice feeling to know that.

-

"Fucking shit doesn't get out of the hair easily." Faith muttered as she took down her eight demon of the night, five of them being vamps and two heading for a town for flesh. The last demon basically exploded into green chunks when she cut off the head, leaving nothing behind but a lot of green goo.

She was at least eight miles away from the castle, and she had left the day before and fought all of the night. As it was midday, she thought it was time to go home. People saved, and her clothes stunk of the sewers. But she was too wound up. And it wasn't the after affects of fighting demons, but the affects of needing to let loose and fight for real with a good kill.

Well she had eight good kills and it just wasn't doing the trick. Her muscles were way too tense and her body ached from lack of fight, not too much of fight. Or maybe it was something else.

She wasn't horny, that was for sure. And nor was she hungry. She had fought, but she was still too tense. _Maybe G Man will know._ She thought hastily as she headed back home. Blocking all thoughts of Aurora and her kid out of her mind, if she just pretended they weren't there, some of the muscles loosened, not enough to relax, but just enough that she wouldn't punch the first person that asked how she was, or where she'd been.

As she passed the garden though, she saw Aurora talking to Xander. Her eyes glared at them for a moment and her face tensed, she could hear them laughing at something and it wasn't right. How could _she_ get away with laughing and all she could herself was feel tense, and where the _hell_ was her brat?

She stomped through the foyer leaving green splats of gooey substance each stomp. As she passed a dining room she heard B's laughter from nearby. Red's too now she listened. Stepping backwards two steps, she poked her head around the door to see them playing with Hope. Well at least that answered one of her questions.

But why was B and Red babysitting lil' Hope, while Aurora go some one on one time with Xander? The pounding in her head got louder and she was seeing red. _Hot shower, _that's_ what I need_. She thought as her ears basically just steamed hot air from her anger. Without even noticing, Faith was growling as she slammed the door in her room and ripped her clothes off before stepping into pure hot water.

She didn't notice the stinging on her back as the water poured down, or the fact that as she stayed longer in there washing aggressively the goo off that it was becoming cold, until it was just pure cold water.

She didn't care. Nor did she have to.

Finally after over an hour of being in the shower, she turned it off and crawled onto the bed, the lack of sleep finally catching up with her body. It was these moments in time as she slept without even a dream that she longed for. Pure silence and numbness of feelings.


	5. Chapter Five: Just Lie

Bad influence

Chapter Five: Just Lie

Summary: Aurora's MIA in the castle, Faith's reading to a little girl a not so little book, and Dawn overhears something that wasn't meant to be known to anyone but that person alone.

~*~

The sound of the machines used to cut the plastic and wood and all the other materials used for building the greenhouse, awoke Faith a few hours after she fell asleep. She was vaguely aware that they had been going on for a while but not aware enough to focus on how close they _actually_ were to her room. Her vision was blurred of sharp light that cut through her barely cracked open eyes.

Inhaling sharply at the wrong time caught the strong scent of melted plastic and hot metal. Both leaving a terrible taste in her mouth that wasn't to great to begin with. As Faith groaned in frustration, the memories of the previous hours and days came back to her in full force. _Fuck,_ she thought, _couldn't I have just had a random case of amnesia for a few more hours?_ But luck wasn't on her side for that.

She sat up and ran a hand through her matted- still damp- hair, once again groaning. _Could tonight get any worse?_ Then her eyes snapped open as she realised she had just accidentally jinxed herself. Standing up she kicked her bedside table causing the lamp to smash. Yep today could _definitely _get worse.

After dressing in a plain cotton Singlet and jeans she went into the bathroom and brushed her hair, glad that tomorrow she would be taking a bunch of the girls clubbing in the town over. If she were lucky, she'd catch a few vamps before they get there. She already had the perfect outfit that would draw attention to all the right curves in her body, enhancing some of them at the same time.

There was a knock on the door, very lightly the tapping was but loud enough for her hearing, she winked at her mirror image, going with the motto 'make your own damn luck, cuz it's a new day' and opened the door. The first thing she saw was Hope's face all teary and blotchy and her arms spread out in want, the second being a desperate Buffy.

"Look, I can't find her, she's hiding and I don't know why or where. Most likely she just wants to be alone, but I can not look after the child any longer, all she does is cry for her Aurora and it's not her fault." She breathed out as Faith raised an eyebrow, "So here's Hope," She said handing the child to her, "Her stuff." A bag full of baby things, "and I'm going to go take the girls on patrol." Before Faith could get a word in she bolted.

"Fu-" She began, before stopping herself as Hope cocked her head in bewilderment, "Crap on a stick." She said in the end. "You know, I really don't know how to look after kids." She said finally as she set the stuff down on the bed, "But from what I've heard the hardest thing is when they're teenagers." She laughed, remembering herself as a rebellious teenager, already the rogue slayer.

"Prom…ise."

"Already speakin' like a pro eh?" Faith laughed and Hope joined in as if she understood what Faith meant, "Yeah I promise, so don't get too difficult till then alright?" Hope gurgles a laugh and Faith smirked, "I'm hoping that means you agree alright?" Hope flicked her head down as she tried to blink, but to Faith it looked like she nodded in agreement.

"Book." She said clapping her hands together with a small giggle as she made a small sound with her two hands hitting each other. The little girl's lavender dress moved as she crawled around the bed before she stood up and fell down. Faith laughed at her obvious attempts at being excited.

"Hmm… I'll see what B gave me." Placing Hope in the centre of her bed, she rummaged through the powder blue bag and pulled out a cardboard-paged book. "Oh no, I'm not reading you about Thomas, he was boring when I was your age." Turning to her own stack of books, she looked at her collection before finally pulling out one, "Laurell K Hamilton on the other hand…" She said with a smirk.

"Anita." The little girl's lavender dress moved as she crawled around on the deep red covers of the bed before she stood up and fell down. Faith laughed at her obvious attempts at being excited.

"Huh, read this before have ya?" She questioned, though she was quite certain that the little girl hadn't, it was very unlikely that she had, "Ok, now time's up to listen." She said before she scooted next to Hope and curled an arm around her before she began to read "Willie McCoy had been a jerk before he died…" She said reading the first chapter of the book.

-

"Ok girl's, pair into groups of two or threes, no solos, and no one die, you are not allowed to die, if you do you'll not be allowed to use the TV system for a week." Buffy said in a serious voice, though the girls around her laughed at the joke. They were the older group, more experienced and they were quite prepared for another patrol. It was one of those night were there were a few vamps on the loose and barely any demons; it wasn't rush hour on anything. "Now, if you do cross a demon, do not attempt to fight unless you _know_ how to kill it, we don't want to see that one where cutting off its head gave it more strength again now do we?"

"No Buffy" 's were chanted by the group before they were given a small smile. There were no questions asked, though they had done a hunt like this a few times before and knew the drill, it was still relatively knew, only being on the job for eight months or so. Some girls still got the shakes while they hunted which is why she made them go in pairs and threes, if one of the girls froze up at the wrong time, at least there was another to help save her.

As long as she didn't freeze up either, because that would be very, very bad. But it hasn't happened to her knowledge and if it did, they unfroze quickly enough to kill and destroy the vamp/s.

"Now go hunt and leave no graves unturned." She said and watched them leave. Once they did, she frowned. Willow and herself hadn't found Aurora. But the locater spell they tried didn't work so she was definitely on the property, which brought some comfort to Buffy. She was praying that all Aurora wanted was some solitude and 'me' time, because she could not handle bringing up a baby, even if she was a toddler.

She sniggered to herself at memory of leaving Hope with Faith. She wondered what was going on, maybe Faith was running around the house screaming her head off. Or maybe she just passed the kid to the next person she saw. _Hmm… maybe I should check on them later_. She thought, _just to be sure she's looking after Hope properly_. A humours expression crossed her features as she realised what her thoughts had just said.

Buffy wouldn't have given Hope to Faith if she didn't trust her; she had complete faith in Faith (no pun intended). It was just the fact that some part of her that she normally didn't listen to was scared, where _was_ Aurora. _No, lets not get back to that thought passage again, lets looks at the scenery and the grass eh?_ She thought as she tried to distract herself.

The dew on the grass was slightly icy, with a sigh, Buffy realised that winter was _just_ around the corner. This meant girlish squealing and presents… and snow… everywhere. Normally it wouldn't be a bad thing; hell she still loves the snow. It's just… it'll be dirty; it'll be in her house, down the stairs, in her socks, it will be everywhere.

She didn't know how her mum handled the snow, she just remembered her mother being frustrated when Dawn and her would drag it all _over_ their old house. She missed that house and Christmas with her mum before the paranormal supernatural stuff began. Maybe she'll make a gingerbread house this year if she has time, and she'll buy a Christmas tree and decorate it.

But there is no way in hell that she's buying a present for everyone. They'll have a secret Santa thing. Making not only her world easier, but everyone else's too. No one had enough money to buy around over a few hundred different people presents. Which sucked, but even if they did the money would more or less be likely to go to the school then Christmas.

The school bought a lot of clothes for the girls, granted some of them can make their own, but some of them have no skills like that. Buffy and a few of the others older slayers took them shopping once a month, it was one of the few times the house was almost completely empty aside from a few girls who don't need or want to go and the guys like Wood (when he was here) Xander and Andrew.

"Buffy?" She blinked in surprise, realising that she wasn't alone as she first thought she was as she had escaped into her thoughts. Smiling softly, she encouraged the young girl to speak. "Umm… we, I mean, Ellie and I, found a crypt of vamps, like five of them, so what do we do?" Buffy's grin widened, a distraction was just what she needed from her thoughts at this moment in time.

"You take me to them and the three of us will fight."

-

Dawn kicked a table leg only to wince as pain shot through it. _Damn it, if I had been a slayer that would be broken and I wouldn't be in so much damn pain_. She growled in frustration, none of the older slayers like Kennedy were around. She was _so_ bored, everyone was either patrolling, with Willow doing magic, with Giles learning about demons or with Xander helping with the Greenhouse. She had no where to go, they didn't need her. She was useless.

She knew her research and Giles didn't need her researching anything so that was out of the question, and she wasn't aloud around Willow and magic, not after the previous time she was there, and Xander needed help with heavy stuff, she would only get in the way. Besides, she would not resort to speaking to Andrew, which was low and so very desperate even for her.

Hey maybe that new girl was around and if she was lucky, Faith would be near her and she'd be able to gain coolness points with her. Ah, a plan and something to do couldn't get any better than that. Now to find out _where_ the new girl was and hopefully she'll be able to get her name without looking like a dork in the first five minutes.

_Now where was the room Buffy gave her?_ She wondered as she walked around the halls, remembering what girl was in what one. _It would have to be one where she had some privacy and it would probably be one of the little rooms because of the new slayeretts. Oh, I know where she is_. She thought with a smile. She turned around and headed back to where the slow curving staircase was.

Climbing up the staircase, she looked at the doors and saw the little whiteboard things with the girl's messages on them like 'Sandra, please clean up' or 'Vicki's turn to vacuum'. Dawn's own room was on a higher level, near Faith's actually, but she knew that there were no spare rooms on her floor, there hadn't been for like _ever_.

In one of the last rooms on the floor, she saw a blank door; it had to be her room it was the only spare one at the moment aside from the other one, which was actually used as a storage room. As Dawn crept closer she saw that there was someone there, the room was a dark one with a single window and she knew from when she use to be there before she transferred rooms so she could be with friends that sometimes it was so dark in the middle of the day you had to have a light on to read.

There was a light coming out from under the door. It was only seven in the evening and dinner wasn't until nine, or whenever someone rocked up to the stove to cook it, so it was no surprise that she was hiding in her room, probably with Hope. Although from where she was standing, she couldn't hear the baby crying… but babies didn't cry _all_ the time did they?

Dawn lent to the keyhole to listen, she could hear murmuring which _must_ be to her baby, a lullaby maybe? _No_, she thought, _she's definitely speaking to someone_. When she pressed her ear to the door she realised that she could hear what she was saying and it wasn't to the baby.

From the sounds of it, she was talking to herself, either that or referring to another Aurora.

-

"No, no, no, I can't run and leave, I know her, she'll come after me it'll be a disaster." Aurora ran a hand through her hair and breathed out a sigh of frustration. "But if I don't escape something is going to happen, I can _feel_ it, and the girl's don't deserve that danger." Standing up straight, she began to pace around the room, nervously biting on her bottom lip. A habit she had picked up two years ago while married. "Ok Aurora, think, how can you save the girls without having Faith follow you hmmm…?" She questioned herself.

Her bed was ripped of its sheets and blankets as she tried to look for something that didn't exist. Some part of her knew this, but she wanted to believe that she could find the answers from ripping the room apart. As she reached for a pillow that had been flung into the middle of the single bed, she began speaking aloud again to help her think.

"Ok, what would be a reason that Faith wouldn't follow me?" She stopped and dropped the pillow in her arms, "Anger, she has to be more angry at me, more so then now." She wasn't sure how she would do it but she knew she would. A _thump_ from the door caught her off guard, making Aurora fall onto the bed in surprise. Was it Buffy with Hope?

_Oh god Hope!_ Her thoughts screamed, she didn't mean to take this long without her. The thought of the noise disappeared from her brain and soon she was flying out the door looking for Buffy. As she ran down the hall, her eyes not even noticing anything but walls, Aurora slammed into someone, sending herself flying to the ground.

When she blinked and opened her eyes, she saw none other then Faith with Hope holding her hand next to her. "Boom." Hope said and suddenly as she had went flying, Aurora knew how to get Faith mad. She let Faith hold out a hand with a smirk on her painted lips, before she breathed in and let her fear of their death wash over her.

She would regret this, she knew that, but it had to be done.

"Don't touch me, don't you dare fucking touch me Faith." She had caught Faith off guard, and she could tell this by how her entire body and facial expression froze as if she had stabbed her. "You haven't changed a single bit have you? You're still the same slut I met back in Boston." The Aurora spat on her shoe just to add a top of everything. "Don't you dare touch me or my daughter again you hear me!?" She screeched before grabbing Hope and collecting her cloak and Hope's blanket.

She had ruined something that had kept her sane for years in a household of violence, but she did know, as her stomach muscles loosened, that she had done exactly what had been need to be done.

She didn't glance back.

And when she came back with her cloak, Hope in her arms silently crying at what had happened, she wiped her eyes. There was no point in trying to fix it now, no temptation either, she could now leave without hurting anyone else but herself.


	6. Chapter Six: The Vanishing

Bad influence

Chapter Six: The Vanishing

Summary: Aurora and Hope are hidden in the woods looking for a new sanctuary, someone with a different intentions goes looking for 'their property' and Dawn thinks that hiding the big secret it causing more trouble then less.

~*~

"Ok, so let me get this straight." Xander began as Giles check to make sure the doors were locked as Willow sound proofed the room. "After Aurora screamed at Faith and left, she headed into the woods, the really big ones with dangerous creatures? While you were dusting vamps with the girls, who apparently ran into a hoard of demons not looking to kill you or the girls but on a search and find mission that may or may not be linked to Hope?"

"Yep," Buffy said with fake enthusiasm, she smelt something fishy, although she hadn't spoken to Faith, she knew that everything had been fine between the two, certainly enough that what happened shouldn't have. She'd seen Aurora and she was definitely not _that_ angry at Faith.

"So then, what's the problem?" Giles asked. He hadn't met either of the two from the few days they were here, he was too busy researching, helping Willow research some spells, and teaching classes. But from what the others had said, she wasn't a violent or at least as out bursting as she had been the day before. Which was curious to even his ears, if she was indeed how they portrayed her.

"I know we barely know her, I doubt she even knows herself, but the point is something's wrong, she's either hiding something and is really evil, which I doubt, or she knows something that she kept hidden for what ever reason." Willow said, "Because there is something not right here, and we can all smell it."

"When she was working with me on the greenhouse she was very sweet, but I got the feeling that she felt a bit lost with out holding her little girl, so I think it has to do with Hope." Everyone except Giles, on the table nodded in agreement, it sounded right. "But before we continue, where _is_ Faith? She shouldn't have left for the club for another few hours."

"She didn't leave for the club, she's been hunting since nightfall." Buffy answered as she ran a hand through her loose ringlets. "She's been on a killing spree, Aurora really shook her up."

"But she was hunting-"

"I know. She's been working way too hard even for slayer standards, I doubt she's even slept for that matter." She breathed out a sigh, "I don't know what to do, and we barely know her so do we let her go or bring her back here and protect her?" Silence left the room uncomfortable to everyone; there really was no right answer to any of them.

"Maybe we should ask Faith." Giles said looking Buffy straight in the eye, "After all it was her friend."

"I don't know, there's bad blood between them now, and it's not for the greater good, Aurora really hurt her and I don't know why." Once again silence hung in the room with tension so thick they could feel it pressing down on them, "Maybe we should just leave it, after all, it was her choice to leave right?" Although Buffy didn't like the decision she had came to, it seemed to her the only one that was reasonable enough; there were many reasons to _not_ go after her, but few to actually to.

"I don't like it, but this is your choice Buffy." Xander said before the meeting was adjourned, once everyone left, Dawn crept out from under the table, her face grim. Maybe she should have said something, maybe even told them what she had overheard from Aurora's room, but she wasn't supposed to have heard, maybe it was for the better not to.

Something didn't sit right in Dawn once those thoughts had washed over her.

-

Faith's body was numb, she felt high, higher then before when she was dusting the vamps with the girls. It was so nice to feel this; she didn't even think about Aurora, it was back to the days where she never passed through her thoughts… the days before she had met her.

Alice and Marjorie were dancing with some cute frat boys, and no one noticed her slip up a level to get a better view of everyone over the dance floor. With a cocktail in hand, she swung the top half over atop of the glass and wood barrier and pressed her back against the wall. For the first time in her life, Faith didn't even smile at a guy and told him something sweet and saucy about his bod. Not even the hot rod three feet away, she wasn't in the mood and even though she had that golden buzz that felt oh so right, she was over it.

Something inside of her churned, as her promise to herself to forget Aurora once and for all was broken. It wasn't right, something was wrong she could almost taste it. But the anger at herself and Aurora wiped out all common sense as to why she had said those words. A single glance at one of the girls on the floor level told her they were pursuing the vamp outside. A trick she had used and became very useful in most areas like a club.

What excuse did Aurora have to saying those things? After everything she'd done for her, she goes and attacks her, gets her to hate her. It was stupid, she _should_ hate her, and she should also go and apologize for whatever she had done to piss her off. But when the night was over and she returned to the castle the first person she bumped into was Buffy's lil' sis. The brat.

"Hey Dawnie, sup?"

"Aurora isn't angry at you." Was the first thing that rolled out of her mouth, causing Faith to pause in movement and speech, "She wanted to get you angry, to hate her." It wasn't making any sense to her, why would Aurora want her to hate her, especially if they had to live under the same roof.

Faith replied her thoughts, to speech directed at Dawn only to have Dawn raise her eyebrows in surprise. It was obvious now why Faith was at the club, she wanted to release frustration, she didn't know that as soon as Faith had left for her room, that Aurora had left the house.

"She's left, she left a few hours ago." Now everything rolled into place in Faith's mind. Aurora wanted to escape, but it wasn't because she was angry with someone, Aurora didn't think that way. Aurora was irrational; making plans almost instantaneous and following through to the last possible moment of them. She did it with her husband and running away, now she was doing it for another reason that could possibly get her and Hope killed.

Without another thought, or another word said, Faith turned on her heel and ran but before her body could reach the doorway leaving from the castle to potentially where Aurora may be, Buffy grabbed her. "Let me the fuck go." She screamed as she tried to elbow her blonde, older sister slayer.

"Faith, she left for a reason."

"You don't know her B, she wouldn't runaway to get away from me like that, she's differen'. There's something wrong and she's not telling' no one." Buffy sighed as Faith continued to try and escape her grasp, she could feel the anger creeping dangerously out of her.

"Calm, down."

"Know you calm down, I'm goin' out there to save her wether you like it or not." Faith pulled from Buffy's grasp only to stop as Willow enchanted the door to stop it from opening. "Open the door Red." Faith said throwing a look that could kill.

"Why would Aurora go through all this, get you to hate her, if it wasn't for a good reason, think Faith."

"You don't get it, Aurora doesn't think things through, she's done this before, and she already made me hate her the first time she left me."

"Wait a moment, hold up, she left _you_, didn't you leave her?" Buffy questioned remembering the story Aurora had told Willow and her. Things were beginning not to add up as Faith looked at her strangely as if to say, 'excuse _me_?' "That's what she told us… that's what Aurora said anyway."

"That is _not_ how it happened, I don't know what she told you but it ended with her leaving me for some guy who ended up hurting her. She moved in with a guy ten years older then her, who was an old family friend that she barely _knew_, she was the only person I would have done almost anything to protect her, and she left me for someone who said, who _lied_ to her and gave her a fake dream, something that was what her parents would have wanted."

"You loved her."

-

"Don't cry Hope, come on baby, hush." The trees were thick around them making it impossible for her to run without tripping over. So she just walked, only stopping for quick stops and even then it was light sleeps where the sound of a bird awoke her and kept her moving. If they were looking for her, if they began to search for her, they would bring her back. She couldn't let that happen, they would eventually find out about Hope, it was getting dangerous and she had to protect them and her child.

It was his entire fault. If it wasn't for him… she wasn't going to go there.

If he had just remained with _just_ the raping, the beatings, she could have dealt with it, she had Hope to survive through broken bones and when Hope was older she would have left. But what he did, it was unforgivable; it was more then that though. It was something that she will one day get vengeance on. No mother would let men who did that to their child live, not if they had any say on it.

Her eyes flickered for a second, blurring with the need for sleep.

She needed to keep moving, but she was so tired, so very tired. Hope was crying in her arms, she didn't like being here she could sense something. Something snapped in the distance, it may have just been a stick but it reminded Aurora of bones cracking and suddenly she was very awake.

Hope too was tired and hungry, but she had no food on her, and breast-feeding was not the best option at the moment, she had to keep moving. Aurora wasn't even sure there was much milk in her at the moment anyway; her diet of food hadn't been the best lately.

Breathing in she kept moving, if worse got to worse, she would go to a river and fish, get her protein up then feed baby Hope, she would eat anything if it kept Hope alive longer then her. Until then she would have to wait, she had to keep moving, she couldn't stop now.

"Mum." Hope screamed, but she wasn't actually saying she wanted her mum, she was crying for food, for home, for warmth and comfort, but most of all, she was crying for Faith. Aurora heard it in her child's voice, all she wanted was to be back in the castle with Faith. Aurora guessed that they had bonded when Buffy or Willow handed Hope over to her.

Faith was a good person and it killed her that she couldn't stay in the castle with her and the junior slayers, or slayerettes, or whatever they were called.

But Aurora couldn't protect them and also Hope, it just didn't work like that. She thought that if she was with Faith she would be protected from everything, but what her husband had done to Hope didn't stop under the protection of Faith, it didn't quieten. Aurora still screamed. The only time she didn't was the first night, and that was from exhaustion, she was sure of that.

_Crack_.

She gasped. And suddenly the world held its breath. Hope wasn't crying anymore, she had fallen asleep, but something else was out there. When Aurora closed her eyes, she could hear the sounds of slight movement in the distance. She didn't know what it was, but regardless of who or what it could be, she didn't want to run into it. She sped up and kept her eyes open on everything and hearing stretched to hear any more sounds.

Her breathing became erratic with exhaustion and fear, slowing her down. She needed to find something safe to sleep in for a few hours, maybe she would be able to feed Hope if she calmed down and felt safe enough.

She needed a cave, an empty house or lodge; even some scary mansion that could be haunted seemed safer at the moment. She didn't trust herself climbing trees, the last time she fell out and then into the arms of Faith.

She couldn't think of Faith in time like this, it was dangerous and she'd get distracted. Distractions were bad. Very bad.

-

"Sir?" The man turned around and looked at the snivelling coward, how desperate the boy was to be in his shadow, to be liked by his master. "She's left the protection of the Castle." The man smiled, there was no way he had been prepared to battle a hoard full of slayers to get his child back, but he did know how to lure his dearest wife out.

"Where is she headed?"

"We don't know, the trees are enchanted and a protection against her, though I doubt she knows."

"We can't take the chance, round up the circle, we're going to get them back." The candle flickered in the wind, showing a glimpse of the man's face, but the only thing the servant to his master could remember of his face was his eyes, and how red and hollow they looked, a tunnel that had no light at the end only darkness.

He jumped away and the flame of the candle was just out of reach of the man's face. Shaking he tripped over his cloak in a desperation to get away and still, tell the circle what their master had said. He was more afraid of him, the master, then of anything else. The man could make him do terrible things by asking, but he could do far worse by forcing.

Hell's darkest pits were nothing compared to him.

He didn't know what the demon was that had taken over the human body, but it was dark, and it was powerful, how stupid was the girl to runaway with the child? _His_ child? Not even the slayers could protect her forever from him. And Eternity was a long time to be his wife.

A very long time.

He wondered if she married him before he had been possessed by the demon, he himself had only joined the circle in the past year in hopes of been cured of the disease, now he wished that he could turn back time and die of terminal cancer, ever that was better then this.

He'd seen her once, the girl and her child; she was a very beautiful girl, an angel amongst demons and shadows. It was a pity he didn't get a chance to talk to her, maybe one day his master will allow him the pleasant conversation for his good behaviour, the master said he would reward him and talking to the girl would be the reward, just to hear her speak.

The hallway he ran through was long and cavernous. Something that the circle had used since the dawn of time. Flames flickered and there was no end. A complete labyrinth in a circle that went on forever, no dead ends only hallway that never ended. He didn't know how he knew where to go, only that some part of him knew.

And when he found the circle, sitting on a pentagram drawn in blood, a baby's blood, he knew that he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Interrupting this could mean the death of him if the magic went needed to begun, it was black magic the devil himself used and who knows what could go wrong when interrupted, but not doing as his master said could mean far worse things. How he longed for cancer.

But as he watched he realised it was a closing ceremony, at the end and soon enough it was completed. Luck was on his side if only for a short amount of time. "The circle is called." He said and they all stood up as if controlled by a puppeteer. They all were though, in the end, Lucifer had a hold on all of them, even Death could not save them, for Death was in the control of Lucifer.

May God save them all. But God wasn't real really, was he? He would have stopped them all if he were real, that's what a real God would do. One that was as "holy" as they say he was.


	7. Chapter Seven: Promising Home

Bad Influence

Chapter Seven: Promising Home

Summary: Faith ran off, Aurora and Hope have returned to home and a servant receives a reward.

~*~

Buffy sighed. They had planned to look for Aurora and Hope in just a couple of hours, after they created a plan that would have been basically full proof. But for just a second they took a break, Faith said she was going to go grab a drink, something to unwind herself, dull the emotions, and she didn't come back. Annie had stated the fact that she saw Faith leave and exit into woods at full pursuit of Aurora and her baby.

With an Axe over her shoulder.

It was Faith, irrational as ever, being herself. How similar she and Aurora were in that department. And yet Faith wouldn't, possibly couldn't, admit she was in love. Blowing it off as though they were like sisters, pointing out the fact that she would and has done the same for Dawn. It was different with Dawn though, Dawn _is_ family, and Aurora and Hope are basically strangers.

Xander coughed and suddenly Buffy turned around away from the window that faced the woods and into the eyes of Willow, Giles and Xander. They were all at a loss, all stressing over the same thing and all had the same look in their eyes. If Buffy were to look into a mirror herself she'd probably see the same look in her own eye, that look that was lost and on the verge of giving up.

"What do we do Buffy?" She hated this, the fact that she still was in charge at least she thought she did until Faith had taken control a year back over the potentials. Losing control of a situation you thought you hated wasn't fun. Especially when you realised you liked it, not because of power, but because if you died at least you knew it was under your own orders. Of course this didn't apply to when others died, there was always the guilt that followed, even if it were for the greater good.

No she wouldn't dwell on Angel. That was her mistake and he's alive now, alive and not even missing her.

Was he really in love with Cordelia? God she hoped not. And was Spike _really_ alive?

She had to stop thinking about the past, the Scoobies all wanted to know for the future, what her plans were. What could she tell them? There was no point planning now, Faith had taken matters into her own hands.

"I think," She took a breath, realising something, "I don't know, it's not our fight, if Faith needed us she would have stayed and helped." Swallowing down the feeling her stomach had that began to rise like bile she looked directly into the eyes of Willow, "I doubt she's still alive anyway." The woods carried secrets and darkness and at night it was one of the dangerous places to be, not including active hellmouths.

"Buffy-"

"Don't, lets… if Faith doesn't return by tomorrow we'll go." She sighed, "We have the girls here to think about though, each one has the potential to save thousands of lives, we can't take them somewhere we ourselves aren't prepared to go into, its stupid."

Grimly the others agreed, it _was_ suicidal, it was stupid, but hadn't they done the same thing for themselves? Yes, they defeated the odds for those they loved, but those doomed that they barely knew they didn't risk the world for. Even Buffy didn't let Angel live for the world to end.

"So what do we do?"

"We wait, if Faith returns asking for help, we will, if she doesn't ask we won't, and if she doesn't return we'll send a rescue team, we can't lose someone like her, the girls need her as much as they need us." Slowly Willow, Xander and even Giles made a movement or a noise that agreed with Buffy.

Then individually they all left, there was nothing more to talk about, nothing more to do. Though they weren't happy with their choice, there weren't many options, and this one at least kept more people alive then dead. And in the end isn't that what's important? That they keep more people alive from the darkness so that other people can rest easy?

So that _they_ can rest easy?

-

Don't scream.

That's what the person said as they wrapped a hand around her mouth. The voice was familiar, but she didn't know where from. She was _so_ tired. A smell over powered her and she felt weightless suddenly, then she felt something leave her arms. "Hope." She murmured before darkness reached around her eyes covering her. "Don't-" She wanted to scream but darkness was everywhere.

When she awoke, she awoke in a room on a bed. Did Faith find her? She stood up suddenly and the world spun, but it wasn't important, nothing was important except Hope. She was there though, in a crib.

Shakily Aurora walked over to her, the light sounds of heavy breathing from sleep came to her ears and visibly Aurora relaxed. Her baby was safe, now she was allowed to find out her surroundings. As her eyes darted around the room, her body once again became tense.

The bed that she had thought was Faith's wasn't because the smell was not familiar. Faith didn't have a window that looked out onto a backyard. Nor did she have a bookcase covered in books for 'the common household wife'. She was back home. Only her heart wasn't here.

It takes a lot for a mother to forget her own child. But for a moment Aurora did and she screamed as all the memories of this house came rushing back to her. The smell of blood, the black smoke, the broken bones, her husband, her cries, Hope's cries, the raping, the torture, the _others_.

Whimpering she backed herself into a corner before she heard Hope begin crying. Scared and worried she quickly shuffled to Hope, her eyes darting everywhere as picked her up and went back into the corner, her back to the wall, not daring to let her eyes shift from the door. She knew that Hope was picking up on her own whimpers but she couldn't focus, her thoughts were clouded.

Everything was so clouded.

Everything but the past, the past that was flashing through her eyes, making her remember, _forcing _her to remember.

"'_Ello Darlin', so nice to see my wife cooking my dinner." He whispered into the back of her head, playing with the long strands of her hair as he did before he slowly kissed down her neck, onto her collarbone. Aurora swallowed the fear, and tried to keep a firm stance, she was his wife not his servant. She had a right to say no to him didn't she? _

"_I-I don't want to burn dinner, I have to keep stirring." Some part of her scoffed as she took the cowards way out of saying no. But she was scared, she didn't want to make him angry, didn't want him to throw the dishes at and around her. He loved her, he wanted a family just like her, and he had known her parents. _

"_Just a quickie." He told her, there was no asking with him, it was always telling. He lifted up her dress and Aurora began to shake, she didn't like sex, there were only a few times she did and it was before they were officially married, before she saw this side of him, before she understood physical pain._

"_No… please." Her voice was pleading, it was begging, and he knew it. One hand grasped on her waist and the other one pulling down at the only material protecting her from him, she began crying. "Please, don't do this, please." Her sobs echoed around the room as he manoeuvred and posed her body like she was just a doll, though frozen in fear the only parts of her that moved from the position he had placed her in was her chest sobbing and her lips begging._

"_Oh yeah baby, just keep on begging, beg like it's your life." He told her as she screamed. Aurora use to wonder why her neighbours didn't hear, why they didn't call the cops. But she knew better now, the neighbourhood were all in the same thing; they were all part of the cult, the religion. They _laughed_ at her screams._

There had been no one then to save, no one knew of his behaviour but the group then, but now- now there was hope, now there was Faith.

Aurora shivered. A bad feeling crossed her, a bad thought, what if she had hurt Faith too badly in trying to get away, to save the others. She didn't know that He had such methods of finding her, was it just a ploy for her to go to Faith? Did he _want_ her to go to that area for some reason? Or was he just biding his time?

If only she hadn't been so reckless. Maybe then Faith would have found her in time.

-

Faith hadn't stopped looking for any sign of Aurora or Hope yet. How could she? Some part of her knew they were alive, the other parts she blocked out, kept them quiet by focusing hard on looking for signs of Aurora and the baby. The whispers didn't matter at the moment, not in this situation, not until she could hold Hope in her arms and whisper to Aurora that she could keep them safe from her husband.

They didn't matter until Aurora and Hope were curled up in her arms, and Aurora was singing again. The Slayer bet she never sung for her husband.

Faith stopped. What if her husband had found her before she did? What if he had whispered something into her ear that made her scared, through a spell, or a demon, or something? Maybe that's why Aurora left in such a way.

No, she couldn't ponder on the "what ifs" they only lead to trouble. Trouble and major pain that she would not deal with yet. Like with most of her feelings, she would lock it into a tight little box until it broke free or the moment was right. If she was lucky it might just go away forever. Implode on its self and never exist again.

Yeah right.

Faith had to be strong. It wasn't like her to let these emotions get to her, she spent years of her time blocking them out and today was no exception. It was just like the time with Angelus, she had to focus on the fact that Angel was there inside him somewhere.

She would save Aurora and her baby, she would kill that sonovabitch, and she would protect Aurora and Hope for the rest of their lives if it killed her. But why would she do it? They weren't family, hell she only new Aurora for half a year back pre-rogue. But somehow both of them had a hold on her.

And man did she miss those cookies, the cookies and the kiss. That sweet kiss that had made her just forget everything and everyone, even her mum. It took a lot to forget her mum; even dancing didn't make her forget, at least not completely. Faith sighed, this was crazy, she needed to concentrate around her, pick up a smell, a piece of torn material, foot prints, anything that could lead her to where Aurora might be.

As she continued to move around the thickets and the trees, she came across a blanket, one Aurora had probably quickly wrapped around Hope. Faith looked around, there was no way that Aurora would have dropped this and continued unless something happened. Aurora was careful.

A howl echoed the area and looking up Faith saw the cruelly beautiful light of the full moon. She didn't want to deal with a Werewolf at this moment in time, and she was pretty sure she knew where Aurora was now. She wished she didn't have to go back, but maybe she would have to re-visit Boston again.

She hadn't been back there in a while and there were a lot of places that damned man- no he wasn't even worthy of been called a man, he was a monster like any other she had slayed- could have hidden. Turning around and away from her path, she made her way back to the castle, holding back her emotions and placing them in an already filled up bottle. Sooner or later the bottle would smash, Faith just hoped the she was around Aurora's husband when it did.

She hoped the bottle would smash so badly that she wouldn't be merciful with his killing that she could drag it out slowly and as painfully as he deserved.

Still clutching the baby blanket, she headed inside the castle. Her breathes ragged from over using her body and her anger; she stomped inside, bringing in leaves, twigs and lots of mud. No one told her off like they normally would have, but this wasn't under normal circumstances.

No one spoke to her, even Buffy just watched her head to her room it was obvious that she didn't find Aurora or Hope. It was all too obvious and wrong.

-

"Sir?" The red goat-like eye focused on the servant, Jeremy. "The girl is awake, but the baby's asleep." He, the servant, had watched the baby fall asleep again from the mother's words, he did as his master asked, he had waited for the girl to loose all of her strength and will before he came to his master.

She broke so easily and all she saw was the inside of a room. What a weak girl, so undeserving of his master. "You have done well my servant." Jeremy looked up at his master, biting the inside of his mouth to stop from smiling in please at his Master's words.

"It's all for you Sir." He whispered, bowing his head so he could smile before he bit down in his mouth again. Holding his expression, he looked up at his master, his teeth clenched tightly around the skin inside his mouth before his master spoke again.

"I've seen you looking at her." The servant no longer needed to bite his tongue, as the cold ice-like feeling spread down his spine and through is stomach, chilling him to the bone, scared of what his master would say. "I know what you want." The master's voice was as cold as the feeling that had spread throughout the servant's body. "I think my Aurora needs to be put in her place don't you think?" He asked the servant and the servant almost collapsed in relief.

He was getting his reward at last.

The Master waved him off. Jeremy didn't need to be told twice, after bowing to his master, he nearly ran off through the tunnels to Aurora's little room. Guards stood by to make sure that no one came or left without permission of the Master. But with one small sentence, they went inside the room and pulled out the barely struggling Aurora before placing her in the room opposite.

Jeremy entered the room, but not before he glanced back at the guards to see them standing stiffly by the baby's door as if they never moved. The guards were puppets, with no soul, no sense of humanity in them, they were just a meat bag with the strength of an ogre and the hearing of a vampire.

Closing and locking the thick, heavy door behind him with a murmur of latin, he faced the cowering Aurora who was in the corner of the cold, hard, barely lit room. Arms tightly around her and knees pressed as close to her body as she could get to give her a small, fragile look.

"You probably don't remember me Aurora." Jeremy told her as he stepped forward, his tongue dancing out of his mouth and around his lips in a perverse suggestion that froze Aurora. She began shaking her head, what was happening couldn't be right, she had left this type of world, she had _escaped_ it.

"Nonononononono." Her single syllabled, two-lettered words merged into one because of the fast, furious, terrified pace she used them at. Shaking her head in an ironic timing with each syllable. "Don't." The last sobbed and echoed around the room like a solid, rubber, bouncy ball.

"I came here a year ago, I liked you, you and your voice, could you sing for me?" He crouched down by her, knowing that the _real_ fight had left her body long ago. "Could you _beg_ for me?" Her lips muttering a pray to a goddess, or someone she wanted to save her, Jeremy didn't know, didn't care. He just wanted Aurora for a small fraction of time, body and soul, then he would give the broken doll back to his master, _their_ master.

"Please…" Her sobs were louder then her words as her body barely struggled, she was tired, so tired, she was as strong as a newborn kitten, and as scared as one. "I-I'll do any-anything," She hiccuped and sobbed. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her nose was running, but through all that, she still looked like the beautiful angel Jeremy had fallen in love with.

If he could ever feel or know was love was that is to say.


	8. Chapter Eight: Hunted Anger

Bad Influence

Chapter Eight: Hunted Anger

Summary: Aurora wins the fight; Faith remembers their past, Buffy decided to wait for advice, Dawn disobeys her sister's orders, and a servant is turned into a play thing for the dogs.

~*~

Aurora lay broken on the ground. She hadn't stopped fighting through out the experience, and before he got physically _and_ mentally break her down, he gave up. She hadn't been raped. She was thankful for that. But when he had tried to, when he had been so close as to, she didn't feel like she was there, she felt like something had taken over her body, she felt like something _powerful_ had replaced her.

When the guards put her back in with Hope, she collapsed, but she laughed as well as her body ached from defending herself.

She had heard the nasty crack in his ribs when her leg landed the nasty kick, and the sound his head had made when she shoved him into the wall. It made her stomach turn over, but it made her laugh, hysterical as it was, she was thankful for the sounds. She wasn't crying, she was laughing, and by God she would enjoy the sounds of victory.

Time passed as she laughed before she crawled over to Hope's crib and picked her up, nursing her in her arms. "Hey sweetie." She whispered softly as she rocked her baby, "You know what? Faith's coming to find us, we'll be out here soon." There was no doubt in her mind that Faith was coming, she could almost feel the slayer inclosing in on the forsaken city.

Aurora bit her lip. How many years ago had it been since she had come here? It had been perfect at first, so very lovely. Then a year after they got married… he changed, viciously. She pretended that it was ok, and that he knew her parents and that he didn't _mean _to hurt her. But she still cried. She cried so often it scared her.

But he _had_ been very nice, he had taught her to drive, helped her get her license and everything. He had been there for her for the first year, and eight months more, before the change, she couldn't turn her back on that.

She didn't even sleep with him until their wedding night. He thought she was virginal and in a way she had been. And she had always been completely honest with him; he never asked if she'd ever had sex, only if she'd ever been with another man. No. She hadn't. Only Faith, it had only ever been Faith.

Being with him felt wrong, kissing him, touching him, being held by him all felt wrong and twisted and she hadn't understood why. But then she began reading, he didn't mind her reading, said it improved the woman's mind, so she read a lot, and then she read one book, and Aurora had realized why it never felt right with him.

She never admitted out loud though. She was scared to admit that she only liked girls.

He would frown upon it and the pain she felt while he thought she loved him would be a sweet lullaby to what would have happened if he had known… if he knows.

She remembered watching a television show with him in their early relationship before the change, and how he had been so disgusted with two women kissing on the television that he shut it off.

Secretly, she felt differently, though out loud, she said differently. A hypocrite she became, but only to keep herself safe.

Looking at Hope, she smiled. She remembered a conversation so very far back that it was almost forgotten in her memory.

"_I love kids." Aurora whispered as a baby in a stroller rode past them, no one gave them a second look; it still surprised her that people were so caught up within themselves that they rarely notice people around them. She was resting on a stomach dressed in a red shirt, it was comfortable, and she didn't move. _

"_I use to want a baby sis, but then I'd see my mum and I realized I couldn't let that happen to anyone else." Faith's hand unconsciously stroked the side of Aurora's hair, her eyes flicking to the same stroller that Aurora had had her eyes on. "I'm too scared to have a child, scare that I'll fuck it up."_

"_Nah, don't say that, you're not anything like your mum, don't even look like her." Though Aurora couldn't see it, she knew Faith was smiling, some part of her could just tell. The fact she could make Faith smile as if her mother wasn't the drunken wreck, made her feel like chocolate goop inside. _

"_Would you have kids?"_

"_I hope to, I want to get married, and have kids, I want the perfect life, like my parents had." Faith stopped stroking her hair, her fingers frozen, "Faith? Did I say something that upset you?"_

"_Nah, everything's five by five."_

"_Pretty as blue skies eh?"_

"_Yeah." Her voice sounded distant next to Aurora's, which was humor filled. "Pretty as blue skies." Faith echoed, and when she felt Aurora move her head to see her better, she smiled. _

-

Faith awoke suddenly with a gasp. The memory etched in her head. "_Blue skies…_" Her voice whispered unheard by anyone else. When she looked around her, she realized she was still on the bus and slumped back in her seat. They were about an hour away from Boston, she'd caught a flight and was taking the bus the rest of the way there, it was cheaper, saved her a whole thousand.

And she didn't have the money for the full thing at that moment in time. As generously as the Council paid her, it was still expensive to fly.

She felt physically drained, it was all the work she had done finally catching up with her regardless of what she had eaten and the coffee she drunk. Though none of her body _really_ ached, part of her felt torn, but that was because she knew Aurora and Hope were in danger and she knew, just _knew_ that Aurora was calling for her.

Licking her dry lips, Faith stretched her muscles, well stretched them as much as she could on a crowded bus with really uncomfortable seats.

The man next to her made a rude noise of disapproval and some small part of Faith got a rise out of that. But she beat that part down. She needed all the strength she could get, mental and physical, for what she had in store ahead. Because when she saw the sick sonovabitch that was Hope's biological dad, she'd tear his freaking head off, after she played with blunt, sharp, hot and cold first.

She had to drag it all out so he'd cry. She _ached_ to hear him cry.

She heard someone at the front of the bus mention that they were less then an hour away, and Faith's body started to tense in anticipation. A buzzing in one of her pockets distracted her for a second until she realised it was Buffy calling. But her phone's reception cut out before she decided between answering or not, deciding her choice for her.

She'd check for a text or a voicemail later if she came into reception, but at this moment in time she was too busy going over everything in her head. She knew where he would be, she knew that he had put her in the same house from that crappy neighbourhood where everything looked like the happy freaking family with the green grass and the white picket fence, but she had seen glimpses inside those houses.

They weren't pretty.

The men were scary, even for her, and she hadn't seen any other woman but Aurora living there when she first went to see Aurora after the girl had left her arms in the hours of the morning. There might be women there, but when she had first stepped into the house, every slayer sense had risen to off the radar. And that scared her. It still scared her.

A baby cried on the bus, and for once, Faith didn't want to tell the parents to make the baby shut up, she wanted to hold the baby, she wanted to hold Hope actually. It was strange but being with Hope made her feel like she had a purpose, she felt human with Hope, she felt alive with Aurora, more alive and human with the two of them then with anyone or anything else.

And she didn't even crave just sex with Aurora. Hell she did _want_ it with her, but she didn't _just_ want it with Aurora. The sensual innocence and naïve beauty the girl had made her feel… indescribable. She didn't know what she wanted from her, she'd never, ever felt that she had to protect anyone as much as she felt now. But she knew that not only was her Hero Complex high up, it was maxing over the border.

"I'm coming for ya." She whispered looking out onto horizon. "I'll save ya." And she would, even if she had to die doing it. Hell she'd come back from the dead once before, she could do it again. And this time, there would be someone there waiting for her to wake-up, she wouldn't wake-up alone if she died again, she couldn't handle that kind of pain of being alone.

She missed the Mayor, but she had missed Aurora more, and now she missed Hope like no other.

-

"Where's Faith?" Buffy asked; starring at the room filled with girl's that _should_ be training with Faith.

"Left." A girl said; tearing away from the conversation she was having with a friend. "Ages ago actually, while you were asleep, she had a duffle bag full of weapons and a sticky note she left on the front door." Buffy smiled at the last comment before the rest washed over her.

"What?" She asked, understanding completely what the girl said, but not believing. She _had_ expected Faith to leave but she had hoped that she would at least talk to her first. Foolish hopefulness, she should have known Faith would be as stupid as to go by herself, without a plan, most likely by herself and without telling her where she was going so she could bail her out.

"Here's the note." Another girl said handing it to Buffy.

_B_

_Gotta do this._

Blinking twice, she re-read the note quickly. There was no, 'I'm going to…' or 'you can find me here at…' just 'gotta do this'. Buffy frowned before pulled out her mobile phone and dialled the dark slayer's number from speed dial. The phone cut out after the third ring, which meant Faith didn't want to hear anything. After sending a quick text, she turned to the girls.

"Classes with Faith are off today." Buffy muttered, "Do something productive." She muttered with a wave of her hand. She had to talk to Willow, Xander and Giles. It was important. But as she walking down the hall to find the scoobie gang, she stopped. If Faith was in any real danger she would have asked for help, wouldn't she? And there was nothing she _could_ do anyway. She didn't know where Faith was, she didn't know where Faith wanted to go, and she didn't even know how Faith was _getting_ there.

Chewing the inside of her lip in thought, she decided that Faith would leave her a message or something if she needed help. And if she receives a call, a text, or even a freaking physic connection with her sister slayer, she would go and help her. But barging in to help Faith without been wanted or needed was _not _a good idea.

With the small, candle like flame feeling of worry been smothered with those thoughts, Buffy moved onto the hall to check on other classes of the slayerettes, to see if everything was running smoothly and also because she needed to kill time. God did she have a lot of spare time on the days she wished she didn't.

"Hey, Buffy!" Buffy turned around quickly to see her sister running after her, "Did ya find Faith?" She shook her head no, before shrugging, a silent answer meaning 'sort of but I don't want to talk about it'. "Ok, well umm… I just got off the phone to Bea, ah… Beatrice, and she just said that there's been a lot of missing people and death's in Boston, and from the bodies she seen, because you know she's got connections and all and her boyfriend Brad-"

"Dawn."

"Right, umm… what was I saying? Oh yeah, there's markings on the body, sacrificial markings."

"Oh, ok, I'll send a team-"

"No, not a team, this is big Buffy, not group of possers big, but another apocalypse that could be the rise of something really, really big."

"Been there, done that Dawny, come on."

"Buffy, it's Boston, you know, where Faith left to." Buffy stopped and blinked at her sister.

"How-"

"She grew up there, everyone knows that, and you have to admit, Aurora does have a soft accent of it, I wouldn't be surprised if that's where Faith went to grab her and don't tell me she hasn't because come on, she's in love with the girl, anyone whose seen how the three of them act can see that Faith's in love and loves both Aurora and Hope."

"Faith can handle it, besides, she's only going for a snag and drag, you know."

"Whatever, I'm going to go talk to Willow, _she'll_ take the information seriously."

"No, don't, I'll tell her." Dawn eyes her wearily before she muttered a soft "fine" comment and walked away. Buffy watched her sister leave, determined that everything was fine and that Faith could handle it. She'd just send her a text with the new information and a small team to help Beatrice. Beatrice was smart and incredible intelligent, Buffy was sure that a good team of slayers with Beatrice could handle the problem.

If it were big there would be a prophecy of it in one of Giles' book.

-

Beatrice frowned as she walked out of the morgue. It was the fifth death in as many weeks. Something definitely wasn't right. Not to mention that all of them had the same cuts-to-the-bone markings on both arms and legs, stomach and back of the neck. She had asked Alyssa, a slayer-turned-watcher, if she had found anything out about the symbols from the photographs she had taken but so far there was nothing.

Her phone chirped _Placebo_'s '_The Bitter End_' in an ironic moment of time. Pulling out the cheap Motorola razor she had bought after her other phone got smashed into a headstone while fighting a vamp, she flipped it opened and answered it.

"Bea speaking."

"Hey, Bea, its Dawn, Buffy's sending a team."

"A team? I don't need a _team_ I need experience, _real_ experience."

"Yeah, yeah, I tried that, but Faith's down, I don't know where she is but you could try contacting her, she's there in an abduction case, you see-"

"Nah, I know what it's about, Alyssa told me, hey, could you get me her number? I had it on my old phone but… there was an accident." Dawn made an "mmhmm" before she pulled open the book of all the slayers and slayerettes numbers and told her Faith's current number. "Hope she hasn't changed it."

"Nah, She's pretty good with her number, her phone not so much, but if you don't have it I'll raid Buff's phone."

"Thanks D, talk to ya latter." She said before clicking the disconnect button with one slim, chocolate finger. Using the number Dawn had given her she tried to contact Faith. After the fifth ring, she almost gave up until a voice answered.

"Yo."

"Faith, it's Beatrice, heard you're in Boston."

"Just got off the bus, I'm in the middle-"

"I've got some information that might be connected with your agenda."

"Where are ya? I'll-"

"I'll come to you, I've got a bike."

"Better be a motorbike." She muttered, "I'm at the front of the main bus stop, near the five way."

"I'll see you in ten." She clicked the phone off before placing her helmet on and straddling the motorbike. Starting the engine, she took the longer in distance, but quicker due to less traffic, way to the bus stop. In twenty minutes she arrived, sliding off the bike, to see Faith standing out in the crowd with a red cotton shirt, dark jeans and a leather jacket.

"We'll get coffee across the road." Beatrice said, "I'll call Alyssa so she can tell you what she's found." At Faith's nod, Beatrice raised an eyebrow, "You can tell me your dilemma while we wait, see if there's any connection to our problems." Faith ran a hand through her hair and crossed the road with Beatrice as the girl texted quickly.

"Got a text from B, she mentioned somethin' bout carvings and an increase of missing people and deaths."

"Yep, that's our problem, bit more to it, but we'll get to that in a minute, talk to me about yours first." The coffee shop was loud and crowded, which was good, people would be too noisy and into their own problem to pay attention to them. As Beatrice ordered a cup of coffee, and Faith ordered a large meal with a cup of coffee, they began discussing.

"I'm sure you already know bout Aurora and Hope, as much as everyone knows anyway, well she was snatched out in the woods by her sonovabitch husband, used to beat the shit out of her, all this stuff, and he's stolen her and her baby for some reason and it's not a dominance thing, cuz he didn't just steal her, he transported her or something magic, out of it, and I've been to where she lived when she first moved in, every slayer sense screamed anger ya know?"

"So he's definitely not human."

"No, I don't know really, he's not normal, that's for sure, tried to sacrifice their baby."

"I think there is a connection, first body found was of a child, completely drained of blood, we thought it was a vampire at first, but there was no fang marks, and the body reeked of alcohol, not the makes-you-feel-good stuff but the stuff you want to put on your wounds."

"Any markings on the kid?"

"Yeah, back of the neck, the strangest part is that the body hasn't been claimed, there's no records of the kid, anywhere apparently."

"So what do you think?"

"I think the child's was one of the cults kids, but I don't think it went very well, I don't think any of the sacrifices are right, its always a woman, and they all look similar you know?" Beatrice said, "It's just not right."

"What do the women look like?" Faith asked as a young, strawberry blonde slid in the seat next to Beatrice.

"Blonde, green-blue eyes, and pale skin, all about five foot five in height give or take a few centimetres-"

"They all look like Aurora." Faith interrupted.

"Well fuck me dead and bring me back twice, there _is_ a connection." Alyssa whispered, as she placed a stack of notes onto the table, "this is what I found by the way, you'll want to read it." Faith opened the sheets and skimmed down a fair amount before catching a name.

"Who in hell is Beelzebub?"

"That's the thing…"

-

Jeremy had failed his master, he had returned to his master with the information, after healing himself with magic without his master's blessing of using it. Needless to say, his master was very angry and now all that's left was toys for the master's vicious, savage, dogs. The dogs were satiated and the rest of the failed servant was splattered on the walls and on the floor that Marcus walked on.

"Master, while Jeremy was… unsuccessful in breaking her, he did help find out something." The man's voice was sly, unlike Jeremy, he was intelligent, strong an a survivor, he always sided with the strongest, always seeing which side was best, always knowing. He was special. He was a favourite. But he wasn't _the_ favourite, no, the bitch stole that title.

"Yes?" His master spoke, seemingly interested, though Marcus was unsure if he actually was. The demonic being always spoke with a blank voice. Though his goat-like eyes did focus on the servant Marcus.

"The bells rang while she was fighting, they rang _loud_."

"Was it her?" The Master seemed almost worried at this, almost, but not quite.

"No, it was the baby, she sensed her mother's distress." The master grinned a malicious grin that brought every sense in Marcus to run, run fast, and run screaming. The canine teeth of his master were pointed, but unlike a vampire, they weren't pointed for food, they were pointed to rip, tear and torture his victims.

"This is a problem." The man said as he lent forward, "She has her mother's innocence, that's not what was supposed to happen." He sighed, "Do you have any ideas to fix the problem?" The master wasn't asking because he didn't know, he was testing to see if the man would prove to be worthy of standing in front of him.

"Separating the child from its mother?" He suggested in a strong attempt at trying to push his master's favouritism to him. But with no avail, he failed.

"No, it's too late for that, years couldn't break the bond the mother has with her child we need something… permanent." The master was not angry at the failure, it was something he, himself, had tried, but even the death of the mother couldn't break it, Connor never knew his mother but he'd trust her in an instant, the bastard child.

"Could we sacrifice the mother?" The servant suggested, not knowing of his masters thoughts of Connor.

"Sacrifice her? No, her memories would return, we can't have that."

"But sir-"

"Silence." The man's voice was demanding and yet he didn't even change the tone, nor pitch of it. "I know exactly what we can do." The servant looked at his master in question. "Marcus, bring me… a slayer, and not just any slayer, I want the true slayer."

"But sir-"

"Now."

"Understood." The servant bowed at his master's order, before he backed out and called on the circle.


End file.
